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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24925864">The Light at the End, The Bones on the Mast</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnesome/pseuds/wynnesome'>wynnesome</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>2020 SteveTony Games [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America (Comics), Iron Man (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Gen, Hydra Steve Rogers, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Non-Linear Narrative, Secret Empire (Marvel), Sparring, SteveTony Games, Team Angst, Tony Whump, Violence, Whump</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:42:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,571</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24925864</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnesome/pseuds/wynnesome</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tony regains consciousness from his Civil War 2 coma, Steve is right there to help train him back up to full strength. But something about Steve seems Wrong. Then sparring turns into beatings, and the beatings continue until morale improves. Spoiler: morale never improves.</p><p>
  <i>"You're weak, Tony. Always been too weak to do what needs to be done. We need to toughen you up." Steve grins at him, bloody-faced. "Just think of this as sparring practice."</i>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Steve Rogers &amp; Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>2020 SteveTony Games [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1786930</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Team Angst</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Light at the End, The Bones on the Mast</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written as a fill for the "Sparring" square for Team Angst in the <a href="https://stevetonygames.dreamwidth.org/">SteveTony Games</a>. Bonus prompts are "Fall Backwards, I'll Catch You," and "Non-Linear."</p><p>Title is from <a href="https://genius.com/Guns-n-roses-coma-lyrics">"Coma" by Guns N' Roses</a>.</p><p>(The more I think about it, the more a part of me feels like I also maybe should have tagged for "Fuck you [Damned Spot], you can thank me for somewhat substantiating your feeble excuse for a plot." But then again, that's more just a personal spite thing. So.)</p><p><b>Content Notes:</b> I elected to tag "Chose Not To Warn" in relation to a) uncertainty as to whether the level of violence merits the archive warning, and b) implied major character death. There's also a brief reference to Tony's alcoholism. <b>Please see endnotes for additional details, which include spoilers.</b></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>ONE</strong>
</p><p>Time after time, Tony falls backwards, and Steve catches him.</p><p>Well, technically, the floor catches him. Sometimes. Sometimes Steve is faster than gravity.</p><p>Doesn't matter. When the floor gets him first, Steve is still right there with the next hit.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>TWO</strong>
</p><p>The first night, Steve shows him to a room.</p><p>"I'm so relieved you're awake, Tony. That you're <em>alive</em>. I won't say I can't do this without you, but I don't want to have to."</p><p>"Never, Steve. Never another war with you. I meant it when I said that. Always better together."</p><p>Steve smiles like Tony has never seen him smile before.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>THREE</strong>
</p><p>Footwork. Guard up. Keep moving. Combinations. Don't telegraph.</p><p>Tony summons up every hand-to-hand technique Steve has ever taught him, as they circle, trading strikes.</p><p>Jab, feint, hook. Don't forget to work the body.</p><p>"Trading," as usual, is pushing it, but then, he always told Steve not to go too easy on him. He might take some damage, but how else is he supposed to get better?</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>FOUR</strong>
</p><p>Wearily, Tony climbs into the pod and starts the cycle. Tomorrow is another day.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>FIVE</strong>
</p><p>Steve watches him the whole time he's working on the circuitry, the wiring, the code. There's no way he can follow what Tony's doing, but he doesn't ask any questions. There'd be no point. Anything Tony does to harm the machine is only going to be to his own detriment. They both know Tony's always been a survivor.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>SIX</strong>
</p><p>The second day, they start training.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>SEVEN</strong>
</p><p>"I have to talk to--"</p><p>He takes the first hit and his head explodes and he hits the floor, the breath knocked out of him. He sees stars. Why did they call it that. He's been to space and stars never looked like this.</p><p>"Wait, p--" No, not *please*; he's not ready to beg, yet, for today. Steve stands over him, legs spread and arms crossed, a monolith. Tony draws his knees up, as if that will protect him. He knows better, but it's just a body, behaving by instinct, no better than a dumb beast.</p><p>"The pod," he pants out. "It's not working so well anymore. You have to have noticed. I can be better, but... you have to let me fix it. I can't be strong enough to..." He fights the way his jaw wants to fold around the words, like the flood and clench before vomiting. "...to stand with you, like this."</p><p>Steve holds down a hand to haul him up. "And you're ready, now? To take your place?"</p><p>Tony's ears buzz and his head rushes. He can't stop shaking. "Y-yes. I'm ready."</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>EIGHT</strong>
</p><p>He summons up every street fighting tactic he's ever learned, mostly the hard way.</p><p>Eyes. Groin. Trips. Any object in reach is fair game for a weapon.</p><p>There's no such thing as fighting dirty when you're fighting for your life.</p><p>It makes no difference. Steve absorbs blows like a black hole absorbs light. All of it.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>NINE</strong>
</p><p>Tony's being carried. He's barely conscious and recognizes this only vaguely. He is a sense of weight and distance, without being able to feel very much. He suspects this is probably for the better.</p><p>He feels it when he's dropped.</p><p>He's broken open and bent at all the wrong angles, and has never been more aware of existing in his body. Words for the ways things hurt are insufficient. This isn't so much pain, as slipping into expiry.</p><p>"Sweet Dreams, Tony," he hears, sees something closing over him... the pod. Steve.</p><p>He wakes with a headache. With an everything-ache. He'll be fine, scrounge up enough for a drink-- wait, he doesn't-- Oh. The pod. Steve.</p><p>It's stiff, and his balance is off; he's seeing blurred and not-quite double, but he can walk. Too slow, like the speed of his mind.</p><p>He's out of time.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>TEN</strong>
</p><p>The fourth day, Steve shows up shirtless, with a tentacled skull painted on his chest.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>ELEVEN</strong>
</p><p>Tony drags himself into the pod. The rejuvenation is less complete every time, now. Too much degeneration of the original cells for the error correction to compensate, probably. It'd been meant for single-use. Right before he starts the cycle, he wonders, how long before it rebuilds him as someone different than he ever was? Maybe it already had. As long as it<br/>
As long as whoever it brings back doesn't ever give in to that bastard.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>TWELVE</strong>
</p><p>The third day, Tony goes to leave his room, and finds the door locked.</p><p>He's been sitting, *staying calm* for hours, scouring for a way or any means of getting out, and then yelling and pounding on the doors, wall, floor, for a few more, when Steve finally comes to him. The door clicks, and he strides through looking like he always did after a battle. Grim. Resolute.</p><p>"What the *hell*, Steve, just, what the *FUCK* is going on?"</p><p>Steve's hands are up. "I'm sorry, Tony. It's a different world out there, now. And you've just recovered from... You're not ready for this, yet."</p><p>Maybe he isn't at full strength, but since when had that matterd? Whatever it was, Tony should have been with him, fighting by his side.</p><p>"Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? You know me better than that. Lock me in a room like a fucking child?" He's in Steve's face, now. Steve smells like sweat and blood. Steve's nostrils flare and his jaw is tight. His eyes are the kind of cold he reserves for mortal enemies. Tony forgives him for still having his head in the fight, but not for keeping Tony out of it.</p><p>Steve takes him by the arms and sets him back a step. "You think you're ready. Fine. We'll start tomorrow."</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>THIRTEEN</strong>
</p><p>Is he still himself? Has he started to look any different?</p><p>How would he tell which changes have come from the generational loss, and which from the bruises, the repeatedly broken cheekbones and nose?</p><p>If he looked himself in the face and didn't recognize who he saw, who would be to say which had done more to put a stranger in his eyes: the overworked machine, or the weeks straight of beatings?</p><p>It's a moot point. He doesn't see himself in mirrors anymore. It's not like he has to shave when he's spending more nights than not in the pod, now, anyway.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>FOURTEEN</strong>
</p><p>Tony arches an eyebrow at Steve. "Hydra logo? Cute. By which I mean, creepy as all hell. You trying to motivate me? Reach my inner anger?" He shudders. "No need to take it that far. You know I'll always give you my best."</p><p>He always would, because he didn't know how to give any less, but also because, no matter what he'd been born with, there were things he had to earn. Being an Avenger. Living up to Steve, deserving to stand with him.</p><p>Steve looks down at himself. "Not trying to do anything. Showing you the way things really are. The truth you're so 'ready' for." He trails his fingertips lazily down his chest. In other circumstances, it might have been sensual.</p><p>Tony is suddenly freezing, his throat suctioned dry. "Not funny, Steve," he stammers. "What's happened to you?"</p><p>"To me? Nothing." He smiles, and it's Steve's radiant smile, as long as Tony looks no higher than his upper lip. "I'm no longer hiding who I really am and always have been. To the world? It's met its master. Hydra is supreme, and I am the Supreme Leader. Now, it's time to begin preparing you to stand at my side. I believe you said something about giving me your best."</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>FIFTEEN</strong>
</p><p>Steve doesn't hold back this time. He's aware that the pod is in optimum working order. Better, even, with the new upgrades. Tony had been conservative in the initial design, for once resisting the temptation to "improve" himself. There was no reason for that, now. He'd promised Steve his best, with no reservations.</p><p>Steve knows these things because Tony told him so.</p><p>Incompletely healed and improperly rebuilt, Tony is shredded apart once more.</p><p>His limbs twist and snap. His tongue is bitten half through, despite the gaps in his teeth. Blood drips, thick and dark, from his nose and mouth. His skull cracks on the concrete, leaving a wet stain he sees, with eyes half-swollen closed, when he struggles back up. His organs must be a macerated pulp under what skin still hangs from splintered ribs.</p><p>He hears himself screaming, an animal, keening wail, cut into short bursts at every impact.</p><p>He goes down again. Steve's booted feet kick him over and stomp on his spine. He lets go, fading out. He's finished. He can stop now.</p><p>Steve will haul what's left of him to the pod. It'll close and start its cycle.</p><p>What wakes, a day or a few from now -- it might take a little longer, this time -- whatever exactly it will be, it will unequivocally no longer be Tony.</p><p>He can only have faith in his soon-to-be-no-longer self, that it will be strong enough.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>SIXTEEN</strong>
</p><p>"You're weak, Tony. Always been too weak to do what needs to be done."</p><p>That was wrong; he wasn't. He'd always been too strong <em>not</em> to.</p><p>"We need to toughen you up, make you strong. Fit to rule by my side."</p><p>Steve grins at him, bloody-faced -- it's all Tony's, from a desperate head-butt. "Just think of this as sparring practice."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><b>Detailed Content Notes (spoilers)</b><br/><b>Violence:</b><br/>Tony wakes up from his Civil War 2 coma while his recovery pod is still in the possession of HydraCap. Tony is not aware that this is the evil and violent version of Steve. Steve suggests "training" to get Tony back up to full strength. The hand-to-hand "sparring" progresses into increasingly heavy beatings, requiring Tony to rework his coma pod to repeatedly heal him from severe injuries, including facial damage, broken bones, and in the final round, strongly implied internal injuries. Descriptions of the injuries are fairly vivid, but brief and limited in detail. Descriptions of Tony's pain and suffering are also limited.</p><p><b>Implied Major Character Death:</b><br/>Tony comes to realize that he will never have the capacity to overpower this evil Steve. He reprograms the coma pod to remake him into a new form that will no longer be himself, but that should be strong enough to accomplish this defeat. Neither the process nor the outcome of that transformation is shown, but the implication is that Tony is effectively choosing to end his own existence in order to escape the hopeless situation and take down his tormentor.</p><p><b>Reference to Alcoholism:</b><br/>Tony wakes up disoriented and aching. The implication is that he feels like he has a nasty hangover. He thinks to himself that he'll feel better as soon as he gets his next drink, then remembers that he is sober now, and that how he currently feels was not caused by drinking.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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